"For my part, were I of the opinion that a certain book would contribute more than any other to establish free trade in the world at large I would not hesitate an instant to give myself up heart and soul to the study of this particular work." --Vilfredo Pareto, born in Paris

"Many people think that the advantage arising from the use of mathematics consists in making demonstration more rigorous. This is an error.... The advantage of mathematics lies chiefly in this, that it permits us to treat problems far more complicated..."

Pareto [L] on the value of rough approximations and of Léon Walras's [R] mathematical general equilibrium theory of economics: "It is better to know that the earth is nearly round than to imagine that is is a flat surface." J Political Economy, 1897

When I find an excellent older economics book like Pareto's at the @GeorgeMasonU library, I often find a sticker reminding me that the great Seymour Lipset of the Lipset Hypothesis and much else spent part of his career here at GMU: